It is known to use scrap tires, or parts of tires, as a supplemental fuel source and carbon source for steel melting in an electric arc furnace. The techniques and methods of such use are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,544 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/974,199, both of which are in the name of Franklin Leroy Stebbing and both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,544, recycling scrap tires into steel or using them as a heat source improves the environment by removing the tires from landfills where they do not degrade but do create a fire hazard. Additionally, a single scrap tire, weighing about 20 pounds, has about the same heating value of coke, approximately 15,000 BTU's per pound, or approximately, 300,000 BTU's per tire.
In the manufacture of steel, scrap tires, which are so plentiful that they have a near zero cost, can be used as a substitute to coal or coke as the heating source, thereby significantly reducing the costs to manufacture the steel. As described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/974,199, the scrap tires can be bundled with scrap steel in a charging bucket and then the contents of the bucket placed in the furnace where the bundled tires and scrap steel are recycled into steel. The present invention described herein builds upon the known techniques and methods of using scrap tires or scrap rubber in the manufacture of steel, as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,544 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/974,199.